Normalization with Saudi Arabia: A Key Factor in October 7 Attack

Exactly three years ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a speech at the UN General Assembly about the transformation brought by the Abraham Accords. He highlighted how these agreements had brought Arabs and Jews closer together, with examples such as Jewish weddings in Dubai and lessons about the Holocaust taught to Arab students in the UAE.

Netanyahu also mentioned that he believed Israel was at the cusp of an even more dramatic breakthrough, a historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia. He stated that such an agreement would advance the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict, encourage additional Arab states to normalize relations with Israel, and improve prospects for peace with the Palestinians.

The shift in the Saudi position on normalization had been developing for years, but it had gathered momentum since at least 2018. In a quote from that year, MBS was reported as telling Jewish leaders in the US that 'the Palestinian leadership has missed one opportunity after another and rejected all the peace proposals it was given... It is about time the Palestinians take the proposals and agree to come to the negotiations table or shut up and stop complaining.'

MBS added that the Palestinian issue was not at the top of the Saudi government's priorities. In 2020, Netanyahu met MBS on Saudi soil, a meeting at such a senior level had never taken place in Saudi Arabia before.